decent redemption on the grimlock front, still has its flaws, still could have been more about grimlock than the scavengers. didn’t address misfire almost hitting him. grimlock choosing to stay with misfire was kinda... cliche? typical heartwarming disabled story? logically he WOULD choose misfire, fort max and imprisonment has got to scare him more, but it was portrayed as an “awww he loves misfire” moment, which is not cool given what happened in issue 45

i don’t like the way it was just kinda dropped in there that they lock grimlock in his room, even if it was to say that they wouldn’t be doing it anymore. it’d be better if there was a “we can’t lock him up anymore” moment, but it’s barely given any attention. i would have preferred it if grimlock had said he didn’t want locks on the outside of his room.

i would have liked to see grimlock resent them at least a little, or be a little more aggressive about how he wants to be treated (like i said, have him say he doesn’t want to be locked up, then misfire agrees, that would have been much better than misfire coming to that conclusion seemingly out of nowhere or at least off-panel). it makes sense he might feel grateful for being taken in like that, or maybe he has fond memories of bonding with misfire that we just didn’t see. but still! they mistreated him, that should be addressed more than it was. for now i’m gonna headcanon that his rampages were about him being angry at them. like when misfire almost hit him, immediately after that he’s tearing through the ship. that’s a good headcanon.

and of course the whole thing wouldn’t have worked if they hadn’t asked him where HE wanted to go, but they did, so points there. it was done really well too! max telling misfire if he really cares he’d want what was best for grimlock, misfire realizing he’s right, that’s an important part. it’s important that misfire was made to think about what was best for grimlock. and it’s equally as important that someone (SPINISTER!!!! BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!) pointed out that grimlock should be the one who decides what that is, and that just because he has trouble speaking doesn’t mean he can’t(/shouldn’t be allowed to) think for himself. i would have had him indicate what he wanted without speaking though. speech is too often used as a milestone of “getting better”, or a measure of how ~normal~ someone is. but there are plenty of ways to communicate without it. i’d have loved if grimlock never spoke again, that would have been cool.

ok, non-grimlock stuff..... i liked that red alert told max not to kill grimlock, i like that rung is telling him to be less violent, i like that literally no one is on max’s side here, even if demus did deserve it. if he’s gonna be an enforcer he’s gonna have to learn to tone it down. but i also like that he’s not nearly as pre-emptively violent as i had feared. there were times he could have shot the scavengers but didn’t. i think he just executed demus because he was mad at demus for being complete filth. still not a smart move, i would have kept him alive on the chance that he knew a way to reverse the domestication process, but i don’t rly care he was murdered in cold blood anymore

i liked the resolution with krok, i love that his goal was helping people, even if he was willing to sacrifice grimlock to do it. and then of course realizing that that was wrong... i like krok now. the mental illness speech was good, it felt forced but whatever lol. the backstory on his squad was great, the click mystery was great, i love that it’s explicitly a comfort thing for him. i love that the similarity to a detonator was used. that’s great

the autopedia vandalism - fulcrum of chinnex, won a medal for bravery. brilliant. combined with misfire’s entry it makes me wonder what we can tell about crankcase and spinister from theirs.

grimlock was drawing on the wall when max showed up. cute

spinister helping max save the roboids..... also cute! spinister is a precious darling whom i love

i love that rung is still in contact with max and red!!! i love rung he is a good therapist and is good for them and he is very serious about his job of helping people. i love him